Jacalyn Burton heard someone pounding on her window around 4 a.m. Tuesday. She went to look but no one was there, so she went next door to check on her 52-year-old neighbor.

“I opened the door and she’s on the floor trying to fend him off and he is butt naked. I couldn’t believe it,” says Burton. “I’m like, ‘What are you doing? You need to get up out of here!’ He’s trying to tell me this is his cousin’s place. I’m like, ‘So? You need to get up out of here.'”

The man Jackie was yelling at was 28-year-old Marcellus Hill, a convicted sex offender who spent a few years in prison. He was recently released but is on probation.

Tuesday morning it’s alleged he broke into his own cousin’s home in the Village Square Apartments and attacked his wife, thinking he could get away with it because his cousin isn’t home. He’s in the hospital.

“You know that has to be traumatic for her. You know, this guy is not even 30 and she’s 50,” Burton says.

“You’re not going to hurt her anymore now that I know what the deal is. That’s not going to happen, not while I’m standing here,” Burton says.

Jackie followed the man out to the parking lot to make sure he was gone. Then she went back upstairs to check on her neighbor.

And get this – so did he. Burton was in her apartment calling 911 for the second time when she heard more noise next door.

“In just that short period of time, he comes and kicks the door in,” Burton says. “Drunk and he was not threatened but I just had to show him I’m not threatened either.”

Burton showed him all right. She got her gun.

That’s the sanitized version of what she said. Her gun in her hand, Burton made sure he knew what she meant. Finally, he left on foot and Burton followed him again, still waiting for police to arrive.

Residents are saying this could have been avoided if the complex had better security.

The gate there is gone and the door to the upstairs apartments doesn’t lock. Fox 2 took those concerns to the new property manager, Keishaun Sallie, who just started two weeks ago.

“We’re a gated community so that’s one of the biggest things that I wanted to make sure, that the gates are working. So, that’s what we’re improving on now,” says Sallie.

Until then, anybody living next door to Burton has a neighbor who has his or her back.

Detroit police told Fox 2, that Hill was found and taken into custody later Tuesday evening.